Musings from a girl living in the sunny island of Singapore.

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3-4 Nov: RBF. It was encouraging to hear how businesses are supportive of carbon-pricing. At the back of my mind I was wondering how this would work at the international level given the situation with the Middle East region. I liked how one of the Moderators reminded us pricing is one thing, policy is another. International is one thing, regional is another. My brain is not really working right now. But I liked what he said then. I was also reminded of the recent open letter the oil companies sent to the UN. It sounded so nice. So vague. Committal and non-committal at the same time. During the second day, there were also representatives from GAR, Wilmar, April. For some (expected) reasons, the Wilmar guy was bombarded with tough questions. (Unexpectedly, the Monsanto guy was not). I didn’t know if I should sympathise with him or not. I can only imagine how hard it is to be a CSR person in a palm oil company right now. I mean. I come from a civil society background and a number of my friends are campaigning to #XtheHaze. As much as we want these companies to be responsible, I think it’s always important to remind ourselves to be responsible too. If one truly demands products sourced sustainably, then do the right thing and ensure we are doing just that in the first place.

4 Nov: Met Mel. Mel has been going to COP since COP15. She gave some good advice to me and Cuifen on what to expect when we are there.

5 Nov: SYCCN meeting. It was a follow up meeting from the one we had weeks ago. I think it’s great how things are developing right now. Am looking forward to a more structured ecosystem next year.

6 Nov: Green Roundtable. Olivia revived this after not organising it the last three years. Technically any other green group could have organised it. But no one did. In any case. There were nearly 30 people who attended, from various kinds of “green groups”. It was one of those situations where I’m reminded how we have been working in silo.

Update: New Zealand published the TPP text online. I haven’t started reading it http://tpp.mfat.govt.nz/text

7 Nov: Urgent Run

Full costume rehearsal for Urgent Run. I was a Happy Poop.

I actually went to Daiso to get acorn, felt and chenille to put together this costume. I had wanted to dress up as a giant poop since last month. That day, I decided to include red strands to represent menstrual blood to highlight hygiene issues and sexual harassment that the female population face when they have no access to toilets.

The Engineering Good team at Urgent Run. Photo Credit: Probably a stranger helping us to take this picture.

I forgot to bring the brown paint I got from Spotlight. But I had fun anyway! And here in the picture is the Engineering Good team. 2/3 of us wore blue to represent the 2/3 of population who have access to toilets. And 1/3 of us wore brown to represent those who still do not have access to improved sanitation.

8 Nov: Free day.

9 Nov: Perspectives on Future of Oil. On the whole it was a good session for me where I learnt more of the oil issue from the business perspective. I just had to ask that urgency question; with all the INDCS submitted thus far we are moving towards 2.7 degree, above the 2 degree safe limit. (And today 11 Nov, I read an article stating we are at that 1 degree already).

Update: I did this shoutout on FB: “Hey Westies! If you’re looking for reasonably-priced Vegetarian food, aside from Green Dot at Westgate Level 1, there’s also quite a number of vegetarian options at the Foodcourt at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) Tower B Level 2!

Also. Cos. You know. The POSB ATM at Jurong East MRT, JEM Basement and Westgate Level 4 is forever crowded.. note there is also one at NTFGH Tower A Level 2!!”

10 Nov: Deepavali. Free day.

11 Nov: In office.

Update: Fellow tenant from ground floor going around the building: “Hi! I’m xx. Here to lobby for free car park for all tenants, free first hour parking, and extended gym hours! I thought he had an amazing attitude for doing that.

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12 Nov: Free evening.

13: Out with the RHG gang. Technically our hang out with Shasha before she moves on to the married status.

Update: S and I met this guy from 5 Capitals, a company whose background is based on Forum’s Five Capitals model; Natural, Human, Capital, Manufacturing and Financial. In that conversation I realised he is a biologist-lawyer-sustainability guy. And he did a few things which made me feel he has such a high EQ and S said “that shows he had good upbringing.” Here I am thinking there should be more people like that in this world.

Dinner with RHG (minus Hanna) went well. During what the girls termed “deep conversation” which tonight was more of asking me my views on having babies when I get married, to which I said “no” by the way (at least not with how things are right now), I gave all those limited resources reasons and Shasha was trying to convince me about the beauty of bringing another life in this world and letting that life make its own decisions.. and that dinner conversation continued this morning (14 Nov) with her sharing me this WSJ link http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304279904579517862612287156 on this Matt Ridley saying how over and over again we have overcome those limits, and so I replied her with this Guardian link http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/jun/18/matt-ridley-rational-optimist-errors saying this guy is writing from his personal interest, and then she reminded us, somewhere along our 14 years of friendship, there was a point where I was supporting Lomborg and she Al Gore, and now we realise these people are possibly just money making machines. I’m glad I’ve been exposed to more materials the last 5 years to be honest.

14: Planning to watch Pedro in Magneta. But I haven’t bought tickets.

Update: Tickets are sold out and I wished him well. I don’t know whether to feel bad or not. But anyway. I’m now going to have breakfast with Sha2 and Hanna!

Update: Paris Attack. Juls was apparently 2 mins away walking home after dinner. She’s OK. That morning, all I could think about was how the state of emergency would affect security at COP happening in 2 weeks time. It was hard for me to sympathise or show sympathy because it made me think about the senseless attacks in places like Palestine. The day before that, Beirut was attacked and no one talked about it.

15 Nov: Lepak morning!

Update: 7 people turned up for Lepak and I’m still putting together the notes from that day. I went to Books & Beer after that. Met Cheryl who had wanted to come to Lepak but couldn’t’ make it. We chatted after BB.

Update: I didn’t like the FB filter. I didn’t like the media overhype on Paris the last 24 hours. What I liked was the solidarity that the French showed. There was a viral video of people singing the national anthem I believe, as people went out of the stadium. Pride. Strength. Togetherness. That German pianist who cycled and played Imagine outside Bataclan. Music brings people together. It lifts our spirit up. And seeing all that was beautiful.

16 Nov: Perspectives on Smart Energy.

Update: Last week, the Oil panelists were going “ah at the end of the day, renewable energy can only provide so much of energy.” Today, the Renewable energy panelists were “ah renewable energy is possible, with deregulation, and perhaps subsidies, like what the oil companies are getting.” In my head all I could think of “even with all the wonderful technologies, and perhaps.. in 100 years maybe, ASEAN grid does happen.. how can we effectively ensure, the 65 million people in the rural areas, with no access to electricity, get electricity?”

Update: France jets bomb Syria. To wage an “unforgiving war” for what happened. I adored France when it voted to recognise Palestine as a state. Today, it felt like I had a change of heart. Why retaliate with massive air attacks.. it felt like a tit-for-tat game that was childish? How can you stop violence when you’re engaged in violence?

17 Nov: Prep meeting with other panelists involved in the EU event following week. Meetup with Cuifen’s contact to prepare for COP.

18-20 Nov: Attending 1aes. I’ll focus on the “funding” component though. Also planning to catch up with the Malaysian team going to COP. And dinner with Adrian!

21 Nov: Should be back in Singapore by then. Got to participate in a “so lame” video as Yihan puts it. And then get my Illness insurance. I already have a Hospitalisation one, and I wanna add on an Illness one.